the psn is down. maybe you’ve heard of this? it’s just been in the news several thousand times. from gamer to politician, everyone just has their knickers in a twist over this whole issue. if it isn’t bitching and complaining about the lack of online games, they’re banging on about their personal information being stolen.

we live in a day and age where NO ONE guards their privacy. clerks try asking for your postal code and phone number when you’re out shopping. ten people ahead of me in a line don’t even blink when asked for this info, but i become the bitch for refusing. you need my postal code so i can buy leather gloves? no, go fuck yourself.

almost everything requires a credit card, to ‘verify it’. hotel rooms, dinner reservations, online shopping, renting anything – do you know you can’t make a facebook app without a credit card or mobile phone number? what a load of horse shit!

privacy… being violated… and we are all pointing the finger at sony? not quite fair.

guess what? sony, like a lot of other companies, isn’t immune to hacking. or theft. best buy got hacked. that was pretty recent, but there is NO industry that is safe. this is the world we live in. this is the price we pay for things at our fingertips. tech, finance, government. a few years ago, even the super bowl stadium site got hacked.

little_nerdxo and i have been working our way through the new lego star wars. we can’t sync the trophies, but i wouldn’t trade the time we spent together for anything. captainadventure, who is more of an online player than i am, is using her time to catch up on trophies.

personally, i’d actually argue that i like the break. i’m playing the sims almost non-stop [hence the lack of blogging, which has also been nice]. i’ve been spending more time with friends on patios, going for car rides, and just generally enjoying the spring time in toronto.

i love my playstation. this is just a rough patch. the ps3 is an international free service. it’s got a great selection of games. it’s my lifeline, as evidenced a few weeks ago. i can play my old ps2 games on it. it cures cancer, for fuck’s sake. are we truly going to kick it when it’s down?

i’m not a total fan girl. could sony have done more? probably. i am not pretending that they’re innocent but i also don’t know the full side of the story. if anything, it comes down to a 50/50 scenario. big business has a responsibility, but why are we going gently into the good night? consumers, like it or not, also have a certain responsibility. it’s kind of like the adult equivalent of ‘don’t talk to strangers’. don’t fuck a guy who doesn’t wear a condom. don’t download every goddamn thing you see online.

golden rule of this digital age? don’t give out your credit card to everyone who asks. a credit card is not some kind of magical, bullet-proof vest.

on sunday, i thought my world collapsed. as i told many of you, my beloved ps3 had a heart attack and almost died. i have been dreading this day for a while. when it happened, i was filled with ennui, despite the fact that everyone around me continuously reminded me it wasn’t an actual death. friends, family, boss man, co-workers, the boyfriends … everyone was a little wtf about it.

it was kind of like a death. or a – spoiler!- close call. i depend on my ps3. it’s a date night hub, playing movies whilst one of the boyfriends and are on the couch. it’s my therapist, when i pop in call of duty after a tough day and gun down as many bitches as possible. given i don’t have cable, its internet browser capabilities is my tv. it’s my muthaeffing life, yo.

when it broke, i didn’t actually cry but i was adrift to say the least. i was anxious, partly due to the fact that the ps3 had its episode of cardiac arrest and was clinging to the assassin’s creed 2 disc. i got the ‘In Memory of Petruccio’ trophy, and synced it. the next day, i got the ‘Show your Colors’ trophy. i felt pretty smug, since i had almost all the pieces of subject 16’s problems. platinum trophy was almost mine. then the whole red light death thing happened and i was scared. was its life flashing before its eyes? could it hear me, begging it to stay with me? the ps3 is too young to die!!

i called captainadventure, one of the most technical girls i know. she recommended this place on yonge street, called gamerama. haven’t heard of toronto’s gamerama? let me tell you something about these people. let me drop some knowledge on you. they are miracle workers. they are saints. they are captains of industry. they are people who i owe a debt of gratitude. they fixed it. i got everything back.

they don’t have a web site, which is unfortunate. what they do have is a treasure trove of toronto video game accessories, video game selection, etc. they have knowledgable repair people. they have decent prices. I LOVE THEM. and to put it in perspective for you all, i also love puppies, robert downey jr and a good workout [or robert downey jr giving me a good workout. hey-oh!]. it’s ok. there are many different types of love. no one need panic.

anyway. first thing i did when i got a chance was sync the trophies – and wrote this post. from the bottom of my strange little heart, thank you, gentlemen of gamerama.

hello citizens! i have been offline a little bit. my ps3 kind of started acting up over the weekend, and totally bit the dust on sunday. it’s in hospital as we speak. i have been assured that it will be ok, but as we know with machines, it’s not fixed til it’s fixed.

it’s been a bit of a blur, to be honest. i was playing assassin’s creed 2, and got all those bastard feathers. it was pretty late, so i synced my trophies and went to bed. the next morning, i got the auditore cape, and wore it in every land. i was about 3 puzzles left on the whole subject 16 thing when IT CRASHED. i managed to get the disc out, thanks to captainadventure, but my beloved ps3 is being operated on and i haven’t had the heart to play video games.

i am keeping my fingers crossed – the doctor has assured me that he’s able to fix it but i am anxious and restless.

collectors edition, i must say, are a mixed bag. unless you buy online, video game merch is few and far between. i am sorry, but even i am only willing to possess so many action figures. i am a little too old for mario character plushies – the boyfriends are patient people, but one can only tolerate so much.

this is why i used to love collectors editions. you always used to get a ton of shit from them. stardust entertainment was closing its scarborough toronto location about a year ago, so captainadventure and i booked it down there and bought a lot of shit. i scored the grand theft auto 4 collector edition, as well as the fallout 3 one. there’s some good shit in those two. then there was the assassin’s creed 2 one. not bad. action figure, metal tin, book, making of, yeah not bad.

i have also gotten a few others. maybe it is just me, but i am noticing the quality falling. the god of war collector’s edition… well, it wasn’t bad. plastic box, some art books, a dvd ‘making of’ thing… in retrospect, i could have left it on the shelf. the fallout: new vegas collector edition. pack of cards, and some poker chips? meh. maybe i indulge myself too often.

the other day, i got the assassin’s creed: brotherhood collector’s edition. i was so excited about it, as well you all may remember. i haven’t played it yet, but the collector’s edition? the stuff you get with it is a pile of shit.

– art book. but it’s not so much art as it is so much the same shit you can can see anywhere else
– map poster
– dvd chronicling the development process
– a free bag of yawns

the crowning jewel in this clusterfuck is a jack-in-the-box. it is such shitty quality that i am rendered almost speechless. i opened it, and met by a plastic-smelling figure. good times. i struggled with the lid for five minutes to close it. then i showed little_nerdxo. same difficulty, although we had a good giggle over it, it was another struggle to get the lid back on. then we played it again.

its fucking arm broke.

obviously, i’m not going to return it to ebgames. they’d want the whole thing back, and lugging this piece of shit across toronto is just not something i am interested in doing.

what i am interested in doing is being less blinded by my own greed next time.

i hate to admit defeat. hate it. it’s a weakness. and no good has ever come of weakness.

i will sadly and reluctantly admit that my plan of simply adding video games to my collection was a bit ridiculous. a few months ago, i started voraciously watching episodes of hoarders. then there was hoarders: buried alive. i can’t help it; i find this sort of show simply fascinating. i always wonder: how did they get there? what happened, what event transpired to create this situation? i take a certain amount of pride that my place doesn’t look like that. oh sure, every now and then it gets messy, but no one’s ever going to evict me over it.

then i look at my game shelf. then i get a little scared.

captainadventure has long preached the value of the rental. rent it, play it, return it, forget about it. then if you like it, buy it. ‘oh please’, i scoff. ‘it takes me months to finish games, i have a life’.

as the games keep piling up, i get a little anxious. i mean, i bought oblivion over a year ago and i still haven’t played it. i bought the sims forever ago, and have been getting side tracked like nobody business.

now, some of you out there i know will argue that i should examine the trade-in route. but these places don’t even offer half of the value you paid for the game. and as far as renting goes, well, i seriously doubt whether i can commit to two solid weeks of something. there’s work, there’s fun, there’s boys… i mean, honestly my social calendar fills up fast.

man oh man. fallout: new vegas is the shit. just like the last one, i am rocking this thing on ps3. now, in my day, we didn’t do this ‘strategy guide’ bullshit. ok? that is some freeze-dried bullshit right there. we just fought it out. sometimes we polled our friends. later, we had this little thing called ‘the internet’. maybe you have heard of it? we sure as hell didn’t have any of this ‘strategy guide’ nonsense. a lot of clerks push them on you, especially when you buy the game the first day it’s out. why would i pay upwards of $30 for something i can get for free on the webz? asshats.

anyway, captainadventure loves them. i was telling her how awesome fallout: new vegas was, and her first question was about this damn guide. guess what though? she bought the game, and the guide for fallout 3. she played maybe 5 hours, then gave up after fallout 3 revealed itself to be hot glitchy mess. what did that equal? a waste of money.

i find that this is another big trend in games. big game, strategy guide. maybe you put two and two together and got four, you clever wannabe mathematicians and realized the bigger the game, the bigger the guide.

sheesh. if it wasn’t for little_nerdxo and captainadventure, i don’t think my house would have ever gotten organized. recently, we went on a trip to ikea. i moved in march, and only in july did i finish unpacking the boxes. not because i have that much stuff, but because of no furniture. i kept putting it off, time and general laziness being the big factors. why buy furniture when i can buy games?

amazon.com video game organizer

the biggest questions of all though, was what to do with the mountains of games i own, not to mention all the consoles. a quick google search for ‘video game organizers’ went beyond uphelpful. amazon.com’s offering is pathetic – by the looks of it, it holds only about 6 games and a few controllers. serious and even casual gamers are going to amass a lot more than 6 games over their lifetime. the most insulting part of all is the description:

Gamers are serious about video games! And when you’re that serious, you’re going to need some serious organizational power to back you up. And there is no reason to skimp on style! Presenting the Faux Leather Video Game Organizer. It boasts plenty of space for gamers controllers, guides, games, and it stores them all in one complete faux leather location! Perfect for gamers of all persuasions including the Wii, PS# and Xbox! Order one today and let your favorite gamer get back to doing what they’re best at — winning the game! Assembly level/degree of difficulty: No Assembly Required.

honestly? the only thing i’m serious about after reading that description is tracking down the copywriter and repeatedly punching them in their goddamn face.

now, one could argue that the solution is to simply buy one of those megabeast media centres, but this is simply stupidity, and sheer ignorance. flatscreens, or at least the new model lcd i own, doesn’t have the ports needed to accomodate retro consoles. captainadventure tried to hook up the wii, but it lacked colour and tossed out sound when it felt like it. this goes double for the retro games i own. this means i need two tvs – an old one, and the bitchin’ lcd.